How do my lights get electricity?

[energyservicesla]

Hi Guys ,

 

Okay well I'm going to be filming a music video (film clip) for a friend in a few weeks time. I've basically had no filming experience in the past, I've been watching some video tutorials on lighting etc. Anyways, I plan on setting up a 3-point lighting thing for the clip. We will be filming outside and I think it would be cool to do it at night. We are going to be hiring all the equipment by the way. Anyways, my question is, if I'm filming outside in an alley in my city, where do I get the electricity from for the lights? I know it sounds so stupid but I'm quite confused, please help. Also, what lights do you recommend I hire? Is 3 enough? And how powerful do the lights need to be?

Thank you .....

 

 

 

-------------------

energy efficient lighting

[Ynot]

Hi, and welcome to the Blue Room.

 

Unfortunately the answer is nowhere near as simple as you seem to think. A LOT depends on what the film director wants, and what you are capable of achieving along with the budget you have for hiring equipment.

 

The easiest part to answer is the where - most outdoor location shoots will utilise generators for their power needs, though you'll need to make sure you have enough cable to reach from the genny location to the film location as some gennies CAN be rather noisy. And that also means you need somewhere safe and secure to site said genny...

 

As for what lights and how many, that is affected by the type of film shoot you're attempting, the space you have (and equipment) to get lights in the right places and of course, again, budget.

 

To be frank, if this is a professional shoot, you really need a pro film lighting designer. If it's an amateur affair, and you have no-one with experience, then you're likely going to have to learn by trial and error to see what works for you...

[paulears]

As we're mainly a backstage, theatre and events forum, you might get better responses on these US forums, which is where I think you might be (Your profile doesn't say)

DV Info

DVX User

Paul

[jamed2017]

I had the same dilema when filming for a university project. Same problem, Filming in a alley way.

 

I didnt utilize a three point lighting system and I could of done and wish I had.

 

We used PAG lights with a portable battery pack. They were quite bright and if used with a hotshoe adapter could also be attached to a mic stand to set up a three point lighting system. The great thing is you can attach the key light to your camera if you need to do POV.

 

Heres the website. http://www.paguk.com/pagloksystem.htm

 

Hope this helps.

[paulears]

Well, as we're discussing this after all, it's important to recognise that 3 point lighting is designed for clear illumination, facial modelling and highlighting from behind to make the subject stand out from a background. If you want to shoot at night, in an alley - then 3 point lighting is not going to work. As distances are greater - width and depth mainly, but of course height comes into outside framing - then you'd get nice illumination of the subject, but a very murky background. The background, if it needs lighting will take a fair bit of power.

 

In this case, we don't have the info we need. What exactly is the alley shot supposed to look like - Moonlight, Street Light? Sure as eggs are eggs, an on-camera light will look like News at 10. If this is what you want the shot to look like, this is fine. PAGs batteries and portability at night = dimness. Shooting at night and making it look good, but night-like is even more tricky than making a stage set look like it's moonlight!

[kerry davies]

Never thought I'd see a post from LA asking about shooting a film.

Hey Ho. Firstly , permits, secondly, Health and Safety, thirdly, crowd control (which usually means police involvement in an urban environment.)

Lastly, why ask a UK backstage forum when Westwood is probably the finest place on earth to research this kind of thing? Good enough school for Spielberg, anyway. http://www.tft.ucla.edu/

[Ashley R]

To do this You would need a Generator to supply power for your gear.

 

But if you are in a built up area you may be able to get permission from one of the neighbours to 'borrow' thier power for a fee

 

or alternatively the council may have some conveniently placed power supply that you could tap into for a fee.